Sunshine in Lisbon

Dear family,

Life in Lisbon is great as always...it just keeps going...But something that I love about Lisbon is that there are many days of sun during the winter. Like today, for example. Lots of sun outside and you can feel almost comfortable in just a light sweater and it is February! Que maravilha :)
Well, this past week was kind of crazy with our baptism. But, we prepared Hortense (like the flower) to be baptized and she was baptized yesterday. Her life is pretty dramatic and sad (or I should say was dramatic and sad until she met us :) and then everything changed. After a lot of struggle, she finally quit smoking and was baptized yesterday after church. So, everything worked out in the end. Something cool that I learned (that I guess I already knew but became ever more real to me this week) was: God's will doesn't change. Yeah, very simple, but how many times in our lives do we keep asking the same things, hoping to get a different response? I remember praying and asking so many times this week if Hortense was supposed to be baptized, if that was truly God's will for her. I remember thinking and trying to perceive the Spirit, fasting, praying and praying again. But through it all I received the same answer: YES. But why?, I thought, What if she is not ready? What if she is truly not prepared? But, in the end I realized that God's will doesn't change--ours does. It was always His will that his daughter Hortense was baptized on that day, but I, Irmã de Almeida, and Hortense, had to fit our will with His so that it could be accomplished. Even when everything appears wrong, even when it goes against all logic--God's will can be done. We just have to be humble enough and worthy enough to help Him fulfill it. I think that in this life Hortense would have been baptized even if it was not yesterday but sometime in the future. But how much more grateful I am that Heavenly Father let us see the miracle and that through our faults and weaknesses, He gave us the chance to teach her and help her come unto Christ. Nothing happens coincidentally. Heavenly Father lets us get to know amazing people in this life. And like Summer said in her email, we are always planting seeds. We never know how much fruit will come of the seed, though. But how grateful I am to see many fruits of seeds that others have planted along the way. Of course I am here to plant lots of seeds, but our main purpose here is to pick the fruit that is already ripe and ready for us.
The church seems so young here sometimes and sometimes it is hard to feel the burden of trying to do everything for everyone. But I know that even in those times of frustration, Heavenly Father gives us the strength to do it all. If anyone wanted to know the church was true, they would just have to spend a week with the missionaries and they would realize how many miracles they see and how much work they do to build up the kingdom of God. That alone would be a pretty powerful testimony to someone that doesn't know anything about the church. But, I loved how yesterday we went to church and almost all of my recent converts were there! One of them gave a talk (Cesaltina) that was baptized in November. She was so nervous, but her testimony was so pure and wonderful.

Oh, we also contacted yesterday a woman from Colombia. She only speaks Spanish, so Irmã de Almeida and I had a fun time trying to speak Spanish with her. (I had no idea how much Spanish I had known and now have lost). Also, I think it is funny that most people who speak Spanish cannot understand Portuguese but we can understand Spanish. But, we got by on our Spanish and we are excited to teach with a couple of members who are Spanish in our ward...She was very sweet and wanted to know more about the church. So, I think it will be awesome. Irmã de Almeida and I are trying to speak more Spanish now and it is really difficult. We mess up a lot and just slip into Portuguese. It is so similar, but yet so different. ~

Anyway, hope you all have a great week. Thanks for sending the fingerprint stuff. I think I can just go to some police station and get it done, right? So, I'll look at everything when you send it.

Oh, before I forget, could you send me another camera card? I have two and they are pretty full, and seeing as how you guys don't want me to send it home, could to please send me another one? Thanks, sorry for the inconvenience, I should have told you last week so that you could have sent it with the fingerprint stuff, but really, you can take your time if you need it.

Love you all!

Irmã Pérez